More CT inventions pass muster with patent office

By Alexander Soule

Updated
5:09 pm EST, Thursday, February 7, 2019

While on the campaign trail in September 2018 in advance of his election, Gov. Ned Lamont discusses innovation in Connecticut alongside Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google and parent Alphabet; and David Salinas, co-founder of the District Innovation and Venture Center in New Haven.

While on the campaign trail in September 2018 in advance of his election, Gov. Ned Lamont discusses innovation in Connecticut alongside Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google and parent Alphabet; and

While on the campaign trail in September 2018 in advance of his election, Gov. Ned Lamont discusses innovation in Connecticut alongside Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google and parent Alphabet; and David Salinas, co-founder of the District Innovation and Venture Center in New Haven.

While on the campaign trail in September 2018 in advance of his election, Gov. Ned Lamont discusses innovation in Connecticut alongside Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google and parent Alphabet; and

As always at the CTNext Entrepreneur Innovation Awards, held last month in Hartford, Connecticut ingenuity was on full display — from a Darien man’s app to pay youth-league referees to a Westport startup with a digital solution for absentee voting.

As it turns out, the state produced a record turnout last year of new inventions — at least those that pass the inspection of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Connecticut saw a 3.2 percent increase last year in patents awarded to inventors who live in the state, pushing beyond the previous record total in 2017 even as overall U.S. patent awards dropped by a similar margin.

And patents assigned to Connecticut-based companies spiked 19 percent last year, including those where the listed inventors live elsewhere as tracked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

After a record 320,000 U.S. patents granted in 2017, the USPTO granted 3.5 percent fewer awards last year to inventors, for under 308,900 in all according to New Haven-based IFI Claims Services.

Overall patent applications edged upward for the first time in three years, however, by 0.7 percent to nearly 375,800, suggesting that total patent output will increase this year or next, with USPTO typically requiring at least a year to rule on a patent application, and in some cases far longer.

According to IFI, China was the only nation to increase its U.S. patent total, and at an impressive 12 percent gain, receiving approval for about 12,600 patents. Huawei Technologies, a Chinese mobile phone technology company that is the target of a U.S. Department of Justice probe on whether it stole trade secrets, boosted its U.S. patent output 14 percent last year.

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“It’s so important that we provide an environment in which all Americans — who are willing to work hard, persevere and take risks — have the opportunity to innovate, start new companies, succeed in established companies, and ultimately achieve the American dream,” said Andrei Iancu, director of USPTO, speaking in December at at North Dakota conference on the state of U.S. technology. “My top priorities include making sure that our patent system remains strong and effective, that our inventors and entrepreneurs thrive, and that the United States remains the market of choice when it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Mighty Bite and cupcakes

Derby resident Anthony Bardelli was the first Connecticut resident last year to win patent protection for an invention, a device to slice off the used portion of a cigarette and store the remainder. His was one of nearly 90 patents issued on Jan. 2 last year, ranging from complex jet engine technologies from the East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies; to a cupcake container from Inline Plastics in Shelton that was the brainchild of Robert Sellari, Rafael Rivera and Sameh Guirguis.

Myriad more inventions would spring from the minds of the state’s innovators: a modular fishing lure by Stamford resident Jeff Mancini and his Mighty Bite brand; an online system to cobble together a preferred bundle of online streaming services, by Norwalk resident and Cobblecord founder Virginia Juliano; or the Cleatline robotic docking system for boats, by Bridgeport resident Ira Nachem, to name a few.

A group of engineers from the Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft subsidiary of Lockheed Martin was among the last batch of Connecticut patents awarded in 2018, with a system to calibrate sensors on aerial drones.

After a multiyear effort to support entrepreneurial hubs across the state, Connecticut is beginning to reap the rewards of that effort, according to Matt McCooe, a Greenwich resident who is CEO of the Connecticut Innovations venture fund in Rocky Hill that provides financing to new startups.

While plenty of small business owners secured intellectual property rights in 2018, so too did large corporations with extensive resources to capitalize on their inventions. UTC and Pratt & Whitney led all major patent filers nationally by doubling their combined patent output to just over 1,000 in all.

On an absolute basis, IBM topped all with 9,100 patents for a 1 percent increase, with Amazon, Boeing and Ford also registering gains.

Despite a tumultuous year in which it eased out a new CEO and prepped for the sale of several big units, General Electric was among the U.S. companies to increase its patent haul last year, matching IBM’s rate of increase for about 1,600 in all to rank inside the top 20.

Several companies considered among America’s most innovative saw their patent totals fall, to include Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft.

After billionaire Carl Icahn blocked a Xerox plan to sell itself to Japan-based Fujifilm Holdings, the Norwalk-based technology giant saw its U.S. patent awards plummet 28 percent to 325, failing to secure as many as the Fuji Xerox joint venture controlled by Fujifilm Icahn has threatened to dissolve in two years when the venture comes up for renewal.